In the Dim Evening Light
by SuperCookieGirl
Summary: It's a slow evening at Telma's bar. Link comes in and shares his story with her, and she helps him to realize what he should do next. Some LinkxMidna, but mostly LinkxIlia. Not LinkxTelma. The summary stinks, sorry! Rated to be safe


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Author's Note: This is my first Zelda fanfic! (Twilight Princess!!!) I'm not good with titles, so sorry…I hope you all enjoy it and I will make more soon! I love the relationship Link and Telma have, and thus I was inspired to write this. (Telma is also one of my favorite characters!! She's so awesome!) There's some LinkxMidna in here, but its mainly LinkxIlia. (I support both, by the way, although I like LinkxIlia more…hence why this fic is biased to that pairing.) Anyways, if you haven't beaten the game, don't read this! SPOILER WARNING!!!!!!!!!

So anyways, enjoy! Please rate and review!

*EDIT* I made Louise a female. Sorry, I got kind of mixed up at first. Thanks for pointing it out! XD

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**In the Dim Evening Light**

The murmur from the main street of town usually bothered her to no end. But today, it was a noise that highly satisfied her pointed Hylian ears. The sound from the many merchants and people scurrying about the town was flowing in through the open door of the bar, and yet she was glad. It had been a while since she could leave her entrance open without fear of monsters creeping into her place.

Of course, she would take care of any that succeeded. After all, she was _the_ Telma, who owned a popular bar in Castle Town.

It was a late summer evening, and a gentle breeze made its way into the bar from the darkening alleyway outside. The shop had only a few customers at the moment, who were seated in the back room quietly chatting. They were all swordsmen who had recently been taken in by the Hyrule army.

Telma knew what they were discussing. For an unknown reason a day ago, on a particularly stormy evening, the immense Hyrule Castle had collapsed. Princess Zelda, who ruled the land, had miraculously survived the incident, and walked into town the next morning to the townspeople's great surprise. Of course, Telma had missed it all, due to her one-woman business she ran, and didn't know many details. She heard the story from the swordsman who came to her bar after a long day of, well, quite honestly, doing absolutely nothing to help the town.

As she wiped off stains from the deep brown rich colored wood of the counter, her beloved cat Louise perked up from lying on the floor at her feet. Her white fur reflected the dim golden glow of the candles and torches mounted on the walls. Louise silently pawed across the dark wooden floors and paused by the door, as if knowing someone was coming. She sat down, her furry tail twitching back and forth.

No more than a minute later, the door creaked open. Telma looked up from her cleaning and beamed at her new customer who slowly stepped in. Her smile widened when she noticed it was Link, the young swordsman who had helped her and her friends out so much.

The grin vanished as soon as she saw the condition he was in. He looked like he had just barely survived a war.

"Link! Good to see you! Oh my, you look hurt. If you'd like, sweetie, you can clean up in the wash room in the back. I have a small basin you can clean your face and wounds in."

Link nodded. "Thank you." He headed to the washroom. A few minutes later, he came out looking much cleaner and more presentable.

"Link, honey, please have a seat! Sweetie, what happened? You look pretty beat up there," she said, nodding to one of her new bar stools she had recently acquired since traffic had picked up. The boy attempted a smile at her and walked over and sat at the bar, resting his arms on the counter. His chain mail clinked as he un-strapped the Hylian shield and large sword from his back and set them by his boots.

Now that he was closer, she could see his face better in the flickering light. A large cut covered one cheek and several bruises of various severities covered his face. His floppy green hat, as well as his tunic, had several blood stains on them. There was a tear in his shirt on his right arm, above his elbow, and a small gash was visible through it. It wasn't bleeding, but it looked painful, and Telma winced upon seeing it. She wondered how bad he really had looked before he washed up.

Overall, he looked exhausted. His deep blue eyes had certainly lost some of the beast-like glow she had seen in them previously. His shoulders sagged a bit and he seemed to be favoring his left leg when he had walked in.

He sighed and again tried to smile. "I got in…a big fight," He uttered.

Telma blinked. Of course he had, that was pretty obvious. But she hadn't ever seen a swordsman as skilled as Link this beat up and live to tell about it. She had seen Link fight before and honestly hadn't seen anyone more trained than he was. Wondering how he came to the state he was in, she decided to press on.

"Hon, would you like a drink? It'll be on me this time, since you deserve one."

Link was staring at the table, as if he was pondering the question for a moment. "If you have any milk or water, I think that'd be great right now," he said quietly.

Telma sighed. She knew Link was very humble, and also quite shy. He never had ordered any alcohol before, and she was sure those qualities had to do with that. Of course, she didn't blame him, as she witnessed the effects it had on people's minds regularly. She poured him a glass of milk imported from his home, Ordon Village, and handed it to him. He sipped it slowly, his eyes still fixed on the tabletop.

"So, Link," Telma began, leaning forward to be at eye level with the young man. "How about telling Telma about how you got those wounds."

Link looked down, his dirty blonde hair shielding his eyes for a moment. He recounted his story of fighting with Ganondorf. He left out some of the parts of it, and apologized to Telma, telling her it had to remain a secret for Hyrule's sake.

He then told her of a friend who had been with him in the battle, but didn't speak of her name. Feeling it was none of her business, Telma didn't press for it.

"…And then Mid…I mean, my friend, had to leave Hyrule. And she won't ever be able to come back, because she sealed the path off," He paused and sniffed, before shaking his head and continuing on. "I can't tell you much about where she went. It's also a secret. But I won't ever see her again…" His voice cracked a little on his last words and his face flushed a little over it. He put the glass to his lips again to hide his slight embarrassment.

Telma stared at Link, while he finished off the glass of milk. She was absorbing every piece of information he had given her. "So, you were in the castle, and this evil man collapsed it, but you escaped with Zelda, and then defeated him…" She said out loud to herself; quiet enough that the swordsman in the back couldn't overhear her. "Honey, I'm sorry about your friend. I'm sure she'll do well though, since you say she was an important person in her kingdom."

Link nodded and didn't say anything. Telma got the hint. He had loved her. She could tell. She was good at figuring that kind of stuff out.

Suddenly, she remembered something and a sly smile made its way to her face. Changing the subject to a brighter one, she placed her hands over Link's gloved ones. "So, any chance you'll be seeing that Ilia of yours again?"

He jumped a little in surprise of the drastic change in subject. "Um…I'm not sure." He looked up at Telma's tan face, searching for clues.

She took his glass and refilled it with milk, insisting it was on her tonight. "How's she been lately? She and the children back in Ordon Village yet?"

Link shifted his weight uncomfortably. He hadn't even thought of his hometown in a while. He suddenly felt a great wave of emotions and longed to feel the soft grass of Ordon on his bare feet. "They should be back. I haven't been home yet."

The swordsmen were now finished with their meals and walked out of the bar, leaving Link and Telma alone in the bar with Louise. The cat had made its way back under a table on the distant side of the bar and was lazily snoozing away.

"Well, dear, don't you think you should be heading back soon? If what you say is true, you've got nothing else on your plate." She folded her arms and smiled. "And Princess Zelda will have those good-for-nothing soldiers that keep showing up in here actually doing some work to repair the castle." She chuckled a little, and Link smiled.

"I need to return some things before I head home," He mumbled, almost to himself, as he eyed the Master sword that was sheathed by his feet. Realizing he was thinking aloud he blushed and quickly said, "I really want to go back, you know."

Telma smiled. "And I know that the children and Ilia do as well, especially Ilia."

Link blinked and gulped his mouthful of milk. "Why would Ilia want me back? All she did was yell at me about Epona all the time…"

Telma began wiping off and cleaning some of the dirty glasses that were lying in her 'dirty pile' as she called it. "Ilia thought highly of you. When you escorted her and Ralis, I would look back in the wagon at her and she didn't move her gaze from you. And she was smiling."  
Link laughed. "But I was fighting off those bublins! She must've just been glad she was in good hands, that's all." He grinned. "Besides, she didn't even know me. She couldn't remember me."

A devious smile touched Telma's lips. "I've gotten many letters from Ilia in the past few weeks, while she was still in Kakariko without her memory. She mostly wrote about your frequent visits to her, and how sweet you were, and how I should really become better friends with you, and…" She stopped and snickered, as Link's cheeks became red once again.

"Okay, I get it. But she had lost her memory, so she didn't even know who she was. So you can't say that was honest," Link spat out, drumming his fingers against the table and looking away.

"Link, it's not like she wasn't Ilia when she lost her memory. She was the still the same person." Telma stated, glad her clever plan was slowly getting the information she wanted out of Link. "You knew this,"

He blinked, and seemed to now be staring off in the distance. "Yes. She was still the Ilia I knew…just she didn't remember me…Or any of the times we played together as children, or how we always used to go to the spring with Epona, and how she watched me sword training with Rusl…Or even when we were five years old at the Ordon festival, and Bo, Rusl and Uli thought it'd be cute if we…" He caught himself, and closed his eyes and then took a sip of his milk, blushing hard again. "Never mind that…"

Telma laughed and held a clean glass up to the light of a torch to inspect it. "You have so many wonderful memories, Link. I hope you continue to make more."

Link smiled. "I promise to, Telma. And I will come back here and visit as much as I can to share them with you. I will stay in touch." He handed her the empty milk glass.

It was getting late and the cool night air was beginning to blow in.

"I think I'm going to head out," Link exclaimed as he strapped the Master sword and Hylian shield onto his back once again. "Thank you for the drinks, and talking with me. It was nice to see you."

He had so much chivalry. Unlike some other knights Telma knew. "It's dark out there, and even though you probably won't have any problems, be careful, you hear me? There are still some monsters loose, honey." Telma said, reminding herself of her own mother and smiling at the memory.

Link nodded. "I've got Epona, and that ride shouldn't take more than a few hours, so don't worry."

Telma put the last of her now-clean glasses away and glanced at Link. "Where are you heading now?"

Link gave her one of his smiles that made him handsome in her eyes. "To return a weapon I borrowed. Then I'm going straight home, to Ordon and Ilia."

Telma beamed. "Well, say hello to everyone for me, will you? And Link," She locked into his sapphire beast-like eyes. "Good luck with Ilia. You know what I mean, sweetie." She winked at him and he grinned again.

He turned and walked out of the now-empty bar. Louise awoke at the noise of the door shutting and padded her way over to Telma. The cat purred as Telma bent down and stroked her gleaming fur.

"Next time he comes back, he'll be with Ilia, I know it." She told the cat. Scratching its chin, she added, "Don't lose faith in me, Louise. I'm good at these kinds of things."

And a few weeks later, it turned out that she was.

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Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it! :) I love comments, rates, and reviews!

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